m, son of Ahab, and transfer it to that of
Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, and this theory has been approved by
several recent critics and historians. On the other hand,
some have desired to connect it with the account of the
siege of Samaria in Ahab's reign. I fail to see any
reasonable argument which can be brought against the
authenticity of the main fact, whatever opinion may be held
with regard to the details of the biblical narrative.

Ben-hadad did not long survive the reverse he had experienced; he
returned sick and at the point of death to Damascus, where he was
assassinated by Hazael, one of his captains. Hebrew tradition points to
the influence of the prophets in all these events. The aged Elijah had
disappeared, so ran the story, caught up to heaven in a chariot of fire,
but his mantle had fallen on Elisha, and his power still survived in
his disciple. From far and near Elisha's counsel was sought, alike by
Gentiles as by the followers of the true God; whether the suppliant was
the weeping Shunamite mourning for the loss of her only son, or Naaman
the captain of the Damascene chariotry, he granted their petitions, and
raised the child from its bed, and healed the soldier of his leprosy.
During the siege of Samaria, he had several times frustrated the enemy's
designs, and had predicted to Joram not only the fact but the hour of
deliverance, and the circumstances which would accompany it. Ben-hadad
had sent Hazael to the prophet to ask him if he should recover, and
Elisha had wept on seeing the envoy--"Because I know the evil that thou
wilt do unto the children of Israel; their strongholds wilt thou set on
fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash
in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with child. And
Hazael said, But what is thy servant which is but a dog, that he should
do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath showed me that
thou shalt be king over Syria." On returning to Damascus Hazael gave the
results of his mission in a reassuring manner to Ben-hadad, but "on the
morrow... he took the coverlet and dipped it in water, and spread it on
his face, so that he died."

The deed which deprived it of its king^ seriously affected Damascus
itself. It was to Ben-hadad that it owed most of its prosperity; he it
was who had humiliated Hamath and the princes of the coast of Arvad, and
the nomads of the Arabian desert. He had witnessed t